LOS ANGELES, CA – Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion authored by Chair Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor to the First District, and co-authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn on allocating Homeless Housing and Prevention Program (HHAP) funding to support cities interested in pursuing Homekey funding from the State of California.
“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County has taken many actions to reduce and prevent the spread of the virus among people experiencing homelessness, including rapidly standing up temporary housing at hotels and motels through Project Homekey,” said Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor to the First District. “The program has served as a beacon of hope, enabling us to immediately bring some of our most vulnerable indoors to protect them from contracting COVID-19 and to set them on a path to permanent housing. To that end, it is critical that we continue to use every resource to protect the health and safety of our unhoused neighbors. This motion seeks to do just that — allow the County to support cities to help increase the supply of interim and permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.”
The State of California’s Project Homekey Round 1 provided funding to local jurisdictions to purchase hotels and other properties to be used as interim or permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. Los Angeles County was awarded $108 million and used the funds to purchase 10 properties with a total of approximately 850 rooms. Two of those Round 1 Homekey sites are in the First District in the cities of Baldwin Park and Commerce.
The state has nearly doubled the amount of funding available in Project Homekey Round 2, providing considerable capital funding for jurisdictions, including cities, to acquire properties. In addition, through this program, the State also offers limited operating funding to applicants that can demonstrate an ability to “match” these funds. However, for some cities, the ability to provide matching operating dollars is a barrier to pursuing Project Homekey and developing housing for people experiencing homelessness in their jurisdictions.
“Project Roomkey and its sister-program Project Homekey have been two of the most effective tools we have ever had to address homelessness,” shared Supervisor Hahn. “I am not surprised so many cities, like Redondo Beach, want to use this model and set up their own Project Homekey sites and we should help them get the funding they need to do it.”
The motion approved today directs the County’s Chief Executive Office to allocate up to $2.5 million from the County’s initial disbursement of HHAP Round 3 funds to commit operating funds to cities within the County that are not eligible to receive HHAP funding directly from the state and that are pursuing funding through the State’s Homekey Round 2 program to develop or acquire permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The motion also directs the County’s Chief Executive Office to identify up to $7.5 million in additional funding, which may include but not be limited to HHAP Round 3 or HHAP Round 4 funds, to enable the County to fully commit to providing cities that are not eligible to receive HHAP funding directly from the state with the amount of local funding needed to draw down the State’s Homekey Round 2 operating subsidy.
To view the full motion, click here.
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